It’s Just Salt, Right? Nope.
The ubiquity of salt in our cooking belies the complexity of this simple ingredient. That’s because salt comes in many varieties, and which type you choose—even the brand you pick—makes a big difference.
At Milk Street, we use kosher salt for our savory cooking. It is easier to pinch and clings better to meats. Also, its larger granule size makes it more difficult to overseason foods.
But the two main brands, Diamond Crystal and Morton Coarse Kosher Salt, vary significantly. Because Morton salt is smaller and denser than Diamond Crystal, 1 teaspoon contains 5 grams of salt. But 1 teaspoon of Diamond Crystal has just 3 grams. In practical terms, 1 teaspoon of Morton equals about 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal.
Historically, we developed our recipes with Diamond Crystal, but we recently switched to Morton. We believe this makes it harder to accidentally oversalt if using Morton.
Other common cooking salts also vary widely when measured by volume. To illustrate the differences between varieties, we weighed out nine different salts to allow easy comparison.
| TYPE | GRAMS PER 1 TSP | ...PER 1 TBSP |
|---|---|---|
Celtic Sea Salt, Fine | 4 | 11 |
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt | 3 | 9 |
Fleur de Sel | 4 | 12 |
Himalayan Pink Salt, Coarse | 7 | 18 |
Himalayan Pink Salt, Fine | 6 | 18 |
Maldon Sea Salt | 4 | 10 |
Morton Coarse Kosher Salt | 5 | 15 |
Morton Iodized Salt | 6 | 18 |
Sea Salt, Fine | 5 | 15 |
March-April 2021
